Jim Bittner's commitment to family, players built a football dynasty at Moorpark College

When playing alongside a coach’s son, it’s common for teammates to wonder whether they’d be treated as an equal to a blood relation.

Jim Bittner’s son, also named Jim, remembers the question being asked bluntly during practice when he played for his father in the mid-1980s.

“I remember one time getting in a tussle with one of the defensive linemen,” the younger Bittner said. “After the fight, he starts walking off the field, going to the locker room.”

Coach Bittner asked the player where he was going. “That’s your son. You don’t care about me,” was the response.

“You’re all my sons!” the head coach boomed across the practice field.

That’s why the younger Bittner’s Moorpark College teammates refer to him as “brother.”

“Everywhere I went, it was, ‘Hey brother,’ ” said Bittner.

Jim Bittner, who used a father's touch to build Moorpark College football into one of the top programs in California Community College, died last month at 87.

He will be remembered Tuesday during a 10 a.m. memorial service at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Moorpark.

“He taught us about work ethic, character and the importance of family,” said Guillermo Lopez, who played for Bittner from 1995-96 and coached the offensive line at Moorpark for five seasons. “As a head coach, you have to have a pretty good understanding of family.”

Supported by his wife Margaret, Bittner coached in Ventura County for nearly a half-century, spending 14 seasons at Oxnard High and nearly 40 years at Moorpark College.

“There was always football,” said Bittner’s daughter, Mary Perez.

Growing up in the Bittner household, the children remember the constant fluttering from the film projector.

“Every time he hit the rewind button, the TV would get the lines across it,” remembers Bittner’s son, Jim.

Taking over from George Ragsdale in 1979, Bittner guided the Raiders to 208 wins, 12 conference titles and 18 postseason appearances. He was the sixth CCCAA coach to hit 200 wins.

He was inducted into the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, when he was still coaching.

When his tenure at Moorpark ended in 2011, he was Ventura County’s winningest football coach at any level.

His legacy continues at Rio Mesa, where his son Jim is the head football coach, and at Camarillo, where his daughter Mary is the athletic director, and at the scores of other schools where his former players now coach.

“I’ll always remember the love and care he had for us players,” said Hueneme High offensive coordinator Aulama Lemalu, who played for Bittner in 2008-09. “He wanted you there every day.”

Mike Stuart, now head football coach at Moorpark College, played for Bittner in 2006.

Bittner’s coaching tree includes luminaries like former Buena coach Rick Scott, former Nordhoff and Buena coach Cliff Farrar, and former Hancock College coach Kris Dutra.

Mike Moon, Pacifica High’s state title-winning head coach, was a cornerback at Moorpark in 1997-98.

“The cool part about him, he had a way of just deal with very single kid from every single background,” said Moon. “He dealt with everybody the same. ... He brought them all together.

“He took absolutely everybody and coached them up and treated them the same. His were probably some of the most diverse teams you could find.”

After playing quarterback at Moorpark College in 2009 and 2010, Zach Shultis went on to play at Cal Lutheran University and coach at CLU, San Diego State and Humboldt State.

“There was a lot of us that didn’t have a whole lot of offers,” Shultis said. “He completely changed the way my life went. It allowed me to play in college, play at a four-year school and get into coaching.”

Eddy McGilvra, who is now Evan Yabu’s defensive coordinator at Sherman Oaks-Notre Dame, has developed into a private defensive line coach who has helped top draft picks like Aidan Hutchinson and Quinnen Williams prepare for the NFL.

But his future in football was in question when he was a defensive lineman on Bittner’s last two Moorpark teams.

"Being coached tough was always something I needed as a player,” McGilvra said. “It definitely molded me into a better coach. I really appreciated him sticking with me and not giving up on me when times were dark for me.”

Bittner coached the Raiders for 32 years, until he was 76, and was the one of the most experienced teachers in the California community college system.

“Don’t tell anyone,” he often said, “but I’d do this for free.”

He continued coaching in retirement, joining the youth programs of the Camarillo Roadrunners and Oxnard Warriors. Decades earlier, he had helped start the first youth football program in Oxnard with Norris Fletcher and Jay Rogers.

“He would do anything to coach another season,” said Mary Perez.

He also helped his son coach at Rio Mesa.

“He wanted to coach everything,” said the younger Bittner, “even at that time.”

Born in 1935 outside Pittsburgh, Bittner played both ways at Mount Union College in the 1950s and used that experience as a coach.

“He knew every position on the field,” said Lopez. “He would walk around at practice and go to every station. If players were using the wrong technique, he’d correct them.”

There are countless stories of Bittner jumping into a drill to teach his players and absorbing contact, even in his advanced age.

When a 300-pound lineman would send him flying, he’d jump back up and ask, “Is that all you got?”

Former Thousand Oaks High head coach Evan Yabu played two years for Bittner.

“Coach Bittner was tough as nails,” Yabu said. “I remember one time he was standing behind the defense in 7 on 7. One of our safeties turned to break on a streak deep and ran Bittner over.

“He just popped right up and moved on.”

Bittner was as tough as he asked his players to be. He coached through prostate cancer. He coached his final season with walking pneumonia.

“He was definitely no nonsense,” Shultis said. “He didn’t take a whole lot of backtalk from his players or his coaching staff. You were going to do things his way.”

Last fall, he watched his son coach and his grandson J.J. play quarterback in Rio Mesa’s 14-13 win over Buena, refusing to leave the close game early.

“He taught me to be tough,” J.J. Bittner said. “Bittner tough.”

Joe Curley covers high school, collegiate and professional football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsjoecurley on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Bittner's commitment to family, players built a football dynasty